on sunday, june 22, 1941, shostakovich, together with glikman, was going to a football game, but on the to the stadium he heard on the radio that the war had begun along with everyone else. he extinguished a high-explosive fire on the roof of the conservatory. this photograph of shostakovich in a fireman's suit was taken in july of the forty-first correspondent; it was published by many newspapers of the country and the world; the photograph raised morale did not raise questions. was it necessary to risk the life of the great composer like that? shostakovich began sketches for his seventh symphony even before war. but what would later become leningrad, he composed in a besieged city in an apartment on the petrograd side, two sirens and a beat on a metronome. yes, i listen to critics, they will probably reproach me for imitating polishers, let them reproach me, i hear the war like that. on september 17, he came to the radio committee to address the people of leningrad. according to olga bergholz, he spoke with great inner excitement, but outwardly he was calm, but shostakovich's voice so